Iron Gym Works If You Have The Will Power

HANDOUT

HANDOUT

MATTHEW KAUFFMANThe Hartford Courant

I've been trying to knock a few items off my ever growing to-do list, and somewhere up in the top third, between re-caulking the bathtub and finishing the backyard shed I started two years ago, I have a note to myself to "Get strong! Get lean! Get RIPPED!"

I mean, don't we all? So how fortunate that that is exactly what is promised by the makers of the Iron Gym, an inexpensive and cleverly designed pull-up bar that — based on the infomercial — seems to magically latch onto a door frame and support hundreds of pounds of impossibly sculpted muscle.

I had my doubts. The Iron Gym has a wrap-around design that wedges between the top of the frame on one side of the door and the uprights of the frame on the other side.

Watch it in action and you'll swear it will pull the whole door frame down as soon as anyone over the age of 4 decides to hang from it.

But here's a pleasant surprise: The Iron Gym really works as advertised, attaching and detaching from a door frame in seconds, without hardware, and providing a sturdy base for a variety of upper-body exercises.

Watching the infomercial, I started to tally up my suspicions. I couldn't help noticing that they generally only showed the models from the waist up. Now this could have been because they chose men who appear to be on a strict 1,000-situps-a-day diet. But I figured it was an attempt to hide the fact that a bar on a door frame is too low to hang from without your feet hitting the floor. In practice, however, I found it felt perfectly natural to bend my knees during pull-ups and chin-ups.

I also figured the Iron Gym would be in the way if left up on a door, and would therefore require some space to store the oddly shaped item. But at its lowest spot, the bar hangs about 6 inches below the top of the door frame, which still leaves plenty of room for 6-footers to pass without hitting their heads.

You cannot, of course, close the door with the Iron Gym attached. But if used on, say, a bedroom door, it is some solace that the assembled bar turns out to be compact enough to slide under a typical bed.

The $30 Iron Gym is made mostly of steel tubing and assembles quickly with six screws. It bends a bit in use, which is unnerving at first, but I came to trust that it wasn't about to collapse on me.

It does, as promised, install instantly without screws, but I'm reserving judgment on the claim that it does so with "no damage to the door." The bar's padding did leave black marks when used for a few days on a white door frame. Those cleaned up easily enough, but I do wonder if a typical pine door frame eventually will be marred or dented with prolonged use.

The bar is outfitted with foam padding for a narrow or wide grip, as well as padded bars at a 90-degree angle for a neutral grip. That's a nice touch, as the different hand positions do work different muscle groups in the arms and back. (Or, as the infomercial puts it, allows you to engage in "shoulder-shredding, bicep-burning chin-ups and pull-ups.")

The Iron Gym can also be used on the floor for pushups, dips and crunches. Each is a little awkward, but it works, and particularly for crunches or situps, the bar is a nice alternative to wedging your feet under the couch.

So are my shoulders shredded and my biceps burned? Not just yet. Those fast results the infomercial touts would require a level of commitment I've yet to make. (My gym routine consists primarily of people at work saying, "Hey, I saw your wife at the gym.")

Moreover, no amount of strength conditioning is going to turn you into an underwear model without a comprehensive diet-and-exercise program. To that end, the instruction manual includes a nutrition guide that calls for eating six meals a day and eliminating all sweets and alcohol. I think we can all agree this is crazy talk.

But taking a tip from my brother, we've left the Iron Gym attached to a doorway between our den and a hallway, and my son in particular has made a point of getting in a mini-workout each time he passes through. In relatively short order, he's doubled the number of chin-ups he does, so I'm satisfied it makes a difference.

The Iron Gym promises to turn "any door into your own personal gym in just seconds." Given the variety of machinery at a real gym, that's an overstatement. Still, the Iron Gym does deliver as advertised, and I like the added plus of having a quick retort for those who say they haven't seen me on the machines in a while.